Crime & Safety

UPDATE: Craigslist Car Trade Shooting Suspect Charged with Felonious Assault

A car trade via Craigslist goes bad, results in shots fired.

A Craigslist car trade with a Ferndale resident ended in gunshots and arrests Monday night in the median of Eight Mile Road, near Pinecrest, police said.

A Detroit resident, James Morris, 28, is accused of firing two shots at a Ferndale resident living on the 1300 block of Bertha Street after Morris' teenage brother wanted to undo the car trade. Morris was arraigned Wednesday on charges of felonious assault and could face up to four years in prison and/or a $2,000 fine, said Ferndale Police Detective Lt. William Wilson.

The trade took place Sunday night, Wilson said. Morris' teenage brother wanted to undo the deal, but the parties couldn't agree. Monday evening, Morris, his teenage brother, Morris' mother and another of Morris' brothers drove to the house on Bertha to confront the Ferndale resident.

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At about 9:15 p.m. Monday, Ferndale Police officers were responding to a fight in progress on the 1300 block of Bertha, Wilson said. Moments before they arrived, a 911 caller reported shots had been fired and the suspects were fleeing toward Eight Mile Road, he said.

"One officer arrived on the scene and found a 50-year-old male resident of Bertha holding a metal pipe and standing in the street in front of his house," Wilson said. 

The other officers continued toward Eight Mile and found two men in the median of the road, near Pinecrest. Handguns were found on both men and they were arrested, Wilson said. After an investigation, Wilson said, one of the men was released.

Wilson said that as the cars containing Morris, his brothers and mother pulled up to the home on Bertha, the Ferndale resident came out of his house yelling and the altercation continued down the street. During the argument, two rounds were fired at the resident but missed, Wilson said.

According to Wilson, Morris told officers the shots were fired in self-defense when the Ferndale resident shot a shotgun at them, Wilson said, but a shotgun was not located.

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The people who drove to Bertha fled on foot except the mother, who drove off in her vehicle, Wilson said.

A surety bond was posted for Morris, which was set at $5,000 cash or 10 percent. Morris is scheduled for a pre-exam hearing in Ferndale District Court at 1 p.m. April 7.


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